Uptown’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church adjacent to the Charlotte Convention Center will soon be leveled to make way for a $50 million, 230-room Embassy Suites hotel.

The nine-story hotel, which will include ground-floor retail and restaurant space, is being put together by BPR Properties of Greensboro in partnership with CMC Hotels in Raleigh. The joint venture closed on the land and building on Feb. 4 for $4 million, according to property records.

BPR Properties also has an office in Savannah, Ga. It has five hotels under construction, which will take its portfolio to 16 properties.

The Charlotte project is part of a major expansion planned by Hilton for its Embassy Suites Hotel brand.

Last month, the hospitality chain said it would grow its portfolio by 25% over the next three years to reach 300 properties in the Americas.

The announcement comes as civic leaders say uptown needs more hotels. That was one of the big takeaways from a recent study on the economic impact of September’s Democratic National Convention.

Some of the biggest logistical problems — and complaints — during the DNC came from delays in transporting delegates and dignitaries from hotels outside the center city.

The location for the 200,000-square-foot building — at 401 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. — was critical to the Patels.

“This was the site,” Birju Patel says, noting the property is diagonally across from the Charlotte Convention Center.

The Patels have been on the hunt for the right site for more than a year, working with Donald Beck of Beck Commercial Properties Inc.

Rush Dunaway and Joey Godbold of Percival McGuire Commercial Real Estate represented AME Zion in the sale of the two-story building, which dates to 1966.

Beck met Shama Patel in 2009, and he helped her secure space for Flex & Fit in the Duke Energy Center in November 2010 after an “exhaustive search.” Beck was then connected with Birju Patel in June 2011 on Shama’s recommendation to find the land for the hotel.

“Again, an exhaustive search was conducted,” Beck says, adding that the group met or spoke with “every major uptown property owner.”

Networking led to the AME Zion site, which was not on the market. Then came months of negotiating the sale of the church property.

“It was the most challenging transaction of my career,” Beck say. “Birju deserves special recognition. While the property was under contract, he got married, oversaw the family’s ongoing hotel development projects and worked with me on the AME land acquisition. It took perseverance.”

Birju Patel made the final call on the site and put the joint venture together with CMC Hotels.

The Patels say they put an emphasis on working locally and have already tapped Overcash Demmitt Architects for design.

“I feel you get out of this city what you put into it,” says Shama Patel.

Patel Construction Group, a family affiliate, will be the general contractor. Demolition of the church property is expected in the third quarter.

Shama Patel says local restaurateurs are preferred for part of the retail space, estimated at 5,000 to 7,000 square feet. She also plans to incorporate the Flex & Fit concept as an amenity inside the hotel. And she says the hotel’s commercial space will be marketed to draw the uptown entertainment crowd.

“We want to create a reason to stay in uptown, and to come to uptown,” Shama Patel says.

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BPR Properties portfolio

Greensboro-based BPR Properties has 10 hotels and five under construction in North Carolina and Georgia in addition to the Embassy Suites project in Charlotte.